Still Hot In Phoenix

We headed out from Quartzsite, yesterday morning, arriving at a Boondockers Welcome in Buckeye, went to lunch with my brother and sister-in-law, gabbed with our hosts, then plotted our plans for today. (Sorry for the dark picture, but that’s the only one we got while there.) This morning, we had problems with the main slide as we were packing up to leave, and managed to get it within an inch of closing on the back while fully seated in the front. I’m pretty sure we will have a gear and/or rack to replace, but we will deal with that in a few days after we get to Jeff’s. We can abstain from using it until then as it doesn’t block access to anything, and the girls can complain all they want, it ain’t going to open for them to have more room to roam.

We stopped in at Lectric eBikes in Phoenix, taking out 3 of the models for test rides, and both agreed with the same one as our preference. That bike felt much more stable with my bum foot staying on the pedal considerably better, also seemed much more linear in pedal assist. Alex was a great help, and we look forward to hearing from him soon when they become available to ship.

Later, we stopped at a dealership to check out a couple vehicles. We test drove a Glacier Blue Z71, and sat in a Sterling Gray ZR2 Colorado. Both of us preferred the feature set on the ZR2, also the corporate twin to it, Canyon AT4X, but as a Canyon was not available there, we are pretty sure one of those two may be our next vehicle. This ZR2 has extremely low miles but also has a mechanical problem that is awaiting parts for repair. It would be a certified pre-owned with an extended warranty, so we will wait for Cameron to keep us posted. What do y’all think? It’s much lighter than our Ram EcoDiesel, and it would be nice to flat-tow rather than chase all of these extra miles. Stay tuned for an update on that.

Frustrations of the day consist of the busier Phoenix traffic, but we only had brief moments of stopping whereas the other direction had miles of standstill. Also, having my credit card go in to FRAUD status again while trying to get fuel. We dealt with this within the last couple weeks and apparently the issue was not fixed. Customer service was a bit long and snooty on the first call, and we needed to find a campsite before dark, so we ended the call, used another card, dealt with it once we got set up where we are now. This representative was much better and I hope it is fully resolved this time.

It was good that we had a few options for campsites here as the first was posted NO CAMPING due to being within a quarter mile of a stream (maybe a dry one?), the second had a dry wash too deep for us to pass without dragging the back through it, and this area has a few other staying close by, but will do absolutely fine for the night. Good internet speeds and we were able to get setup just before the sun went down. Of note in the picutre... only one slide is out. Okay, dark pictures again. If I could turn back time, I’d make it sunnier out for them, but I can’t. The sunset colors sure are purdy though, right?

I sure could use a break from travel days, but we only have 130 miles to go in the morning on our last and final leg for a while. I’m hoping the trembling pain will subside a bit so I can get some decent sleep tonight. Either way, I’m sure we’ll make it there fine tomorrow.

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